Update October 2021: Since this story was first posted I've changed and rewritten it as part of a compilation. If you want to read a better version of this story, along with others like it, click the link below for directions on where my chapbook Death of Dreams can be downloaded or purchased.
It’s the folded glasses on the table.
The worn slippers in the bedroom.
A collar by the front door.
It’s the silence where there was usually sound.
The empty echo of a greeting when you go home.
Or the sudden absence of wet noses or fur on your clothes.
It’s when the casket is lowered when everyone has gone.
It’s driving away from the vet with an empty seat.
It’s then you realize the hardest part of loss.
The world doesn’t stop when they’re gone.
Life goes on,
Even though you cling to the seconds.
You dread the cleaning,
Clearing out now useless things.
Going back to a normal life.
Because life continues, and well-wishers leave.
And the souls we love fade around us,
With every trinket that is boxed up or tossed.
The hardest part of losing someone,
Is that the world doesn't stop when they do.
They become frozen in the past while we move forward without them.
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